


brain damage

by urdearestmom



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-30
Updated: 2020-11-30
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:47:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,026
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27792517
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/urdearestmom/pseuds/urdearestmom
Summary: “It’s not that I think El doesn’t know her limits,” he says. “I just know that she doesn’t care about them. She’ll die overexerting herself before she lets something hurt one of us.”aka what that argument was REALLY about and what I wish Mike had said in 3x06
Relationships: Eleven | Jane Hopper/Mike Wheeler, Lucas Sinclair & Mike Wheeler, Maxine "Max" Mayfield & Mike Wheeler, Mike Wheeler & Nancy Wheeler
Comments: 20
Kudos: 54





	brain damage

**Author's Note:**

> hey y'all i've had this idea bothering me for a bit and decided to sit down and write it out so i could get out my frustrations about this scene
> 
> listen. i don't stand for mike slander ,,,,,,, i'm not saying he was an angel all season but also? he was like the only person who actually seemed to care about el like, not dying. everybody else was kind of like "oh yea she'll save the day like she always does" and forgot that she's human too 
> 
> so HERE is what i wish he had said in that infamous scene to really get his point across. also the middle part is mostly conjecture but some of it is bits that you can hear in the actual scene if you strain your ears and ignore nancy and jonathan talking over it
> 
> also DISCLAIMER i do not hate max!! i really like her actually but she was really pissing me off with this whole bit because she just does not have any basis for understanding mileven's relationship and so her advice doesn't always directly apply. she had good intentions but BRUH. anyways i could go on a whole rant about max vs mike in season 3 but i'm not gonna do that in an author's note 
> 
> hope you enjoy and let me know your thoughts!

It’s pretty silent in here, El thinks. It always is, but tonight it’s… strange. Almost as though it’s _empty_. Why can’t she find them? She’s been sitting in her room for the last half hour trying to locate any of the flayed and although she can’t see it, she knows there’s a growing mountain of bloody tissues next to her on the floor. She’s starting to think that she might need to give herself a break for a little bit.

Her friends are in the living room waiting for her, and she knows they’re all anxious to find out what she might see. So far, absolutely nothing. The only thing that happens is that every so often she hears a bit of a voice. It’s _just_ there, tickling the edges of her consciousness, and she could tune into it if she wanted to… but she’s already identified it by the cadence of the noise as Mike’s voice, and she’d said she wouldn’t spy on him. She’d done it once and he was clearly upset by it. Although they aren’t really back to how they were before, El misses him more than she lets on, and she doesn’t want to make things worse by spying again. 

Outside, Mike is getting close to yelling. He sincerely hopes El can’t hear him because he is once again fighting with her _new_ best friend.

“It _can’t_ be good for her to be in there for this long,” he exclaims, pacing in front of her door. 

“Mike, you need to relax,” says Max, looking disdainfully at him.

“What if she gets brain damage or something?!” 

“Oh shit,” interrupts Lucas, looking between them. “Is that like, a real thing?”

Max scoffs. “No, it’s not. He made it up. Mike doesn’t know what the hell he’s talking about,” she adds, raising her eyebrows defiantly as if _daring_ him to refute her.

“Oh, and you _do?!_ ” He retorts. Her facial expression alone is pissing him off. It’s so self-righteous, as if she knows anything at all about him or how he thinks and feels. 

“No,” she says quickly. “But I think El does. See, that’s the difference between you and me. You think you know everything!”

“I don’t know everything,” he fires back. His hands are balled into fists and he’s starting to shake. “But I know her.” 

Max snorts. “You’re just mad she wants to be her own person. You can’t deal with other people not doing what you tell them to.” 

“What do you think this is, Russia? I’m not some dictator, okay? I’m just trying to protect El!” He says angrily. This is getting more and more ridiculous by the second. Max doesn’t know the first thing about what he can or can’t deal with and acting like she does is striking his last nerve. Mike can feel the familiar boil of rage deep within him coming to a rise. 

“The only person who knows anything about El’s powers is El,” says Max, with an air of finality. 

Mike crosses his arms in an attempt to get himself in control of his emotions. “So if that’s true, what makes you think you have any more of a say than I do?” 

She splutters for a moment and it’s so _satisfying_ that Mike almost smirks, but it drops quickly when Max rises from her seat and stalks over to him. 

“I don’t,” she seethes, poking him forcefully in the chest. “But she does, and you need to _back off_.” 

“I’m not even _on!_ ” He yells, throwing his arms up and pushing her away. He realizes his statement doesn’t actually make any sense but… whatever. At this point, it’s not like it matters. “She won’t listen to me! Because _you_ put ideas in her head! You know she absorbs every new thing people tell her and you pressured her into dumping me!” 

There it is. It’s out. It’s what he’s been thinking since it happened. He knew he’d messed up big-time by lying to El, but he never would have expected her to dump him over it. And the look on Max’s face as she stood by and watched had said everything he needed to know.

Max’s face is turning an alarming shade of pink and Mike thinks that he probably matches her. “I didn’t _pressure_ her into anything, she decided! What is your problem with letting El decide things for herself?!” 

“I don’t _have_ a problem! At least I _didn’t_ before _you_ inserted yourself where you didn’t need to be!”

“All I did was give her choices!” 

Mike takes a deep breath to retaliate, but then lets it go and turns away. “You don’t understand. Just- fucking leave me alone.” 

Lucas is still staring at them; Mike can feel his friend’s eyes on his back. Why isn’t he agreeing? He was there when El- he knows what she can push herself to. 

Max makes an angry noise. “Fine! It’s not my fault you can’t be wrong!” She walks toward Nancy and Jonathan and Mike follows, preparing to convince everyone else that this is a stupid idea. “Okay, can you guys settle an argument for us?” 

Nancy looks hard at them, her eyes searching Mike quickly before flicking back to the girl next to him. 

“Who do you think should decide El’s limits… Mike, or Eleven?” 

He sees red. “The way that you framed that is such _bullshit._ ” Why is he the villain here?! 

Her braids whip around her face as she turns to him. “It’s not bullshit, _Mike,_ this is your whole problem! And it’s also precisely the reason why she dumped your ass!” 

“El dumped you?” Nancy asks incredulously. 

Mike throws his arms up again. “Yeah, because _she’s_ conspiring against me! She’s corrupting her!” 

“N- _enlightening_ her!” Max throws back. “The fact is, she’s not _yours._ She’s her own person, fully capable of making her own decisions.” 

“She’s risking her life for no reason!” He shouts. 

“No reason?” Says Nancy. “Mike, the flayed are out there doing god knows what-” 

“Killing, flaying,” interjects Lucas. 

“Transforming into monsters,” adds Will. 

Mike glares at them. **_Not_ ** _helping._

“And El’s not stupid,” Nancy continues, shaking her head. “She knows her abilities better than any of us.” 

“Exactly, thank you,” Max says victoriously. Mike closes his eyes. He cannot believe _this_ is how this is going.

“And she is her own person-”

“Exactly!” 

“With her own free will-”

“Exactly! El has saved the world twice and Mike _still_ doesn’t trust her-”

At that he has to interrupt. There’s no _way_ he’s letting Max flip this around. “You wanna talk about trust, really? After you made Eleven spy on us?!” 

Max looks down, giving herself away. 

Lucas stands up behind him. “Wait, what?” 

Mike whirls to face him. “Oh, she didn’t tell you this?” He says sarcastically. 

“No!”

“Your girlfriend used El’s powers to _spy on us_ ,” he spits. 

“No, no, no,” Max interjects. “I did not _make_ her, it was _her_ idea. And why are we even talking about this, seriously?” 

“Yeah,” says Will. “Who cares?” 

And now Mike’s annoyed at Will too. Will has no idea what is going on in Mike’s head and he’s not ever going to understand why he feels the way he does. Just the same as the rest of the Party will never really relate to Will’s struggles because they weren’t there, Will wasn’t there for theirs either. He didn’t _see_ what she did- 

“I care!” Says Lucas, and finally Mike is glad someone seems to be on his side. Thank God for small blessings. 

“Yeah, I guess girlfriends don’t lie, they spy,” he says, turning back to Max at the last moment so she can truly see his ire. 

“We were just joking around,” she defends. 

“Would it have been _so_ funny if I was taking a massive shit or something?” He asks. 

She wrinkles her nose. “You weren’t!” 

“But what if I _was_?!” 

“Then gross!” 

“Seriously, Mike?” Interrupts Nancy, and all of a sudden this has become like one of those moments where he just wants to strangle her for talking before he’s done. She does it all the fucking time and like, he guesses it’s probably part of being siblings but it leaves him fuming more often than not. 

“I’m just trying to demonstrate how careless Max is with Eleven’s powers,” he says carefully. This is where he needs to get his point across. He desperately needs someone to understand that he’s not trying to be controlling or police what El does or doesn’t do, he’s just trying to save her from herself. He couldn’t do it the first time, but by God if he isn’t going to try now.

“Have any of you noticed Lucas is the only one not disagreeing with me?” He asks.

Max huffs. “Lucas doesn’t have anything to do with this. This is _your_ prob-”

“Lucas has _everything_ to do with this!” He roars. Mike has absolutely had it up to here with her and turns on her a final time, shaking again. “You weren’t there, Max! None of you were. Except Lucas. You don’t know what she’ll do..” His voice trembles. 

Lucas seems to understand what he’s getting at and lays a hand on his shoulder. Mike flashes him a grateful look. He still has a hard time thinking about that night, much less talking about it. “She _vaporized_ herself in front of us. I tried to stop her and she did it anyway.” 

The room is silent now, the only sound being the TV static from El’s bedroom where she’s still holed up. Mike takes a breath. 

“It’s not that I think El doesn’t know her limits,” he says. “I just know that she doesn’t care about them. She’ll die overexerting herself before she lets something hurt one of us.” 

He looks up at everyone, Jonathan and Will looking oddly similarly out of place and Nancy with her eyes trained on his face as she listens. Max isn’t looking at him. _Good_ , he thinks. _Maybe that made her feel guilty._

“How would you feel if you knew firsthand El didn’t care about dying to save her friends, huh? Wouldn’t you be worried about her?” He directs this at Max specifically, but she doesn’t seem to notice. “You guys are treating her like some kind of machine, and she’s not a machine. I still have nightmares about that day all the time.” 

The room stays silent, almost as though everyone is holding a breath and waiting for him to start yelling again, but he’s not going to. He doesn’t have any energy left to expound on this topic. If Max wants to keep making him the bad guy, then whatever. He has more important things to worry about. 

“I just-” He starts and stops, wondering if this is the right thing to say. “I don’t want her to die looking for the flayed when they’ve obviously vanished off the face of the Earth, so we can we please just come up with another plan because I love her and I can’t lose her again.” 

Now it’s almost as though all the air has actually been sucked out of the room. Maybe this wasn’t the right time to reveal the depth of his feelings, but Mike really didn’t know what else he could say that could possibly make them understand his position. Lucas’ hand on his shoulder squeezes for a quick second and then lightly taps him as Lucas moves his arm back. 

Nancy shakes her head. “I get that you don’t want her to hurt herself, Mike, but she’s already in there. There’s not much else we can do.” 

“What’s going on?” 

Everyone whips around to face El coming out of her bedroom doorway. Holy _shit,_ did she hear what he said? _Holyshitholyshitholyshitholyshit-_

“Nothing. Nothing!” He says quickly. 

“Just… family discussion,” adds Lucas from behind him. Mike can feel the smirk in his voice without even having to look at him.

“Oh,” says El, and suddenly Mike really wants to hug her. But this isn’t the time. He looks away. 

“I found him,” she continues. 

“Found… who?” Nancy asks. 

“Billy.”

**Author's Note:**

> lmao i had to stop and start netflix so many times for all the dialogue going on


End file.
